Skeptical Clam
Said a skeptical clam to one nearby:
They say beyond these waters is only sky.
Do you suppose life without mud or water
suits a clam, and is even superior?
It’s hard to say, said the other calmly;
it’s what all clams are taught from infancy.
Opinions vary, he added, and are contradictory.
Yet all clams believe they go there eventually.
Vaguer still is what clams do when they get there?
With no water or food, do they filter air?
It’s indisputable that water is our natural home
despite the lack of evidence put forth by some.
Think: Our very functions would be purposeless,
in an environment that’s waterless.
The only creature known to ruminate
on questions like this is the biped primate.
Moreover, questions of this genre are metaphysical,
the clam mind is suited only to matters existential.
We clams care nothing about what comes after,
in fact, it’s a waste of time and a cause for laughter.
After centuries of addicted speculation and debates
humans are still without an answer that elucidates.
Written volumes, convened councils, wars and slaughter,
the question still holds not a single truth of water.
And the only advantage that I can see, I might add,
in that being a clam and not a human isn’t so bad.
Our certain end as clams is chowder, clear, white, red,
and eaaten, and mercifully by then we’ll be dead.
Humans, by contrast, with the question still struggle:
Does death end life or is there, in fact, a sequel?
Copyright ©
Maurice Rigoler
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